


Gratuitous Highschool AU

by orphan_account



Category: Orphan Black
Genre: High School AU, Highschool AU, Multi, Student/Teacher
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-06-25
Updated: 2014-10-18
Packaged: 2017-12-16 04:19:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,254
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/857711
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Sarah is on-and-off with infamously held-back senior Vic, Beth is an emotionally distant mother figure who has a crush on her Leadership teacher, and Cosima is a brilliant yet unstable prodigy. Rated M for drugs, sex, and cursing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

The phone rang.  
And again.  
And again.  
That was the thing Sarah hated about phones. They rang. Typically at the most inconvenient times. Like when she was sprawled out on her bed, uniform half unbuttoned, with an almost six foot senior on top of her, his lips doing all the right things in all the right places. However, it was difficult to remain aroused and blushing when Milkshake by Kelis was blaring into her right ear.   
Pushing the boy off of her, Sarah rolled over and picked up the phone, not bothering to hide her frustration.  
“What is it?”  
“Look, Sarah. Don’t get snappy with me just because I was the one forced to call you. We all know you’re off snogging Vic.” She could tell it was Alison. The last person Sarah needed on the phone. “Now listen up while I tell you what’s going on. Helena got evaluated.”  
Sarah’s breath hitched. Vic was wrapping his arms around her, but Sarah pushed him off, standing up and buttoning her shirt with one hand and holding her phone in the other. “What’s going to happen to her?”  
Alison sighed. “What we knew was coming. They’re sending her away. Pulling her out of school. She’s going to a school for...” Her sentence trailed off. They both knew where Helena was going.  
Helena was quite troubled. She was, for the lack of a better term, the runt of the kids. With a handful of mental disorders and no idea of how to treat them, she had gone untreated for most of her life. But when a school counselor had stepped in, the worst had come of it.   
“Alison, does Cosima know?”  
“Of course not, but I can’t keep her from finding out. You know she has her ways.”  
“I’ll be home soon.”  
“You know Helena will try to-”  
“She won’t be able to.” Sarah snapped, hanging up before Alison could protest. She put on her blazer and turned to look at Vic, who sat on the bed, pleasingly shirtless and hair sticking up in all directions. “I have things to attend to.” Sarah said pointedly.   
“Can’t it wait?” Vic asked.  
“No.” She said curtly, picking up her backpack. “Family before everything.”  
Sarah could only hope that Alison had everything under control.

 

Sarah couldn’t say she was surprised when she came home and found that Alison had nothing under control. Not that she ever did. Cosima was half crying, half screaming over her homework while Beth tried desperately to cook dinner. Sadly, beth couldn’t cook. Alison was nowhere to be found, and so Sarah was left trying to make sense of what was going on.   
Of course, Cosima could have been crying about her homework, but she also could have been crying about the fact that it was hard to breathe with all the clutter in the dining room. There was everything everywhere: documents, clothes, dishes-- the girls were too busy with their individual passions to do something as petty as clean.   
“Beth.” she said, walking into the kitchen and dropping her backpack on the floor. “Where is Alison?”  
She glanced up from the food. “Debate.”   
“Wh-” Sarah paused. That sly dog. Dropping the responsibility of telling her two other sisters about Helena onto her. With a groan, Sarah walked over to Beth. “Why is Cosima in hysterics?” Beth shrugged.  
Sarah could always count on Beth to be emotionally detached. She walked to Cosima, pulling up a chair beside her and stiffly wrapping an arm around her shoulder.   
“What’s wrong?”  
Cosima looked at Sarah and sniffled. “The substitute for Physics didn’t teach us anything but assigned us the same homework we would have received anyways.” She muttered, wiping her face with the back of her hand.  
“Isn’t that what Google is for?” Sarah asked her.  
Cosima looked at her angrily. “You’re not helping.”  
Sarah took the hint and got off her like she was on fire. “Just try it, alright?”  
Cosima looked back down to her paper, sniffling quietly. Sarah decided the damage was done and walked back to Beth. She crossed her arms and didn’t bother waiting for her to top stirring the Kraft Mac N Cheese before saying,  
“Helena is being sent to a special school.” She spoke loud enough for Beth to hear, but soft enough for Cosima to miss.  
Beth looked at her through the corner of her eyes and then looked back at the Mac N Cheese. “About time.”  
Sarah almost growled at her. “Don’t you understand what that means? She could hurt Danielle or Aryanna!” Her voice became a harsh whisper.   
“And?” Beth said, turning to face Sarah. “They are states away from us! Dad doesn’t even know we know about them, which is for the better of all of us. If Helena kills either of her sisters, we shouldn’t do anything to stop it. It’s dog eat dog, Sarah.” She paused. “You’re supposed to be the tough one, why am I telling you this?”   
She didn’t wait for an answer before turning back to the stove. Sarah leaned closer to her older sister. “You know how Helena is. She could easily find out about Cosima. We’re supposed to protect her, she’s the youngest. She’s also the least knowledgable about the other half of us. Now shut up and get the plates out.”  
Sarah muttered something under her breath and got the plates out, setting them down loudly on the counter before saying curtly that she wasn’t hungry. She ran upstairs and walked into her room, collapsing on her bed still in her uniform and falling asleep almost immediately.  
Her rest was short-lived, as Sarah was awoken by Alison knocking her off her bed. Sarah sat up, groaning and squinting her eyes. “What the hell, Alison?” She said, rubbing her eyes and smearing the makeup she had forgotten to remove.  
“Why wasn’t Beth told about Helena?”   
Sarah frowned. “Beth was told about Helena. I would know. I was there.”  
Alison chuckled sarcastically. “Very funny. I just spoke to Beth and she had no idea what I was saying.”  
“Look, it’s not my fault she doesn’t care about anything other than her Leadership teacher. Maybe if she paid attention to me once in a while we wouldn’t have our--” She made air quotes, “Communication issues.”  
Alison made a face. “I guess it’s okay so long as Cosima is oblivious.”  
Sarah just crawled back into her bed and went to sleep, leaving Alison to deal with Beth.


	2. Chapter 2

Sarah woke up the next morning to a dead cell phone and a face smeared with makeup. Cursing loudly, she stumbled into the bathroom and rinsed off her face. Shifting through her closet, she pulled out an identical but slightly less messy outfit and put it on. Running a brush through her hair, Sarah hastily re-applied her eyeliner, slapping on lipstick and running out the door, picking up her backpack from where she had dropped it by the door and walking to her school, conveniently located two blocks away.

“Sarah Hey, Sarah!”  
She groaned. Sarah would know that voice anywhere. She stood up straight, looking over her shoulder to see Vic. Or, as her older brother Felix liked to call him, Vic the Dick. Of course, the dick part was one of the only things keeping Sarah in the rocky, on-and-off relationship they maintained, but that was a story for a different time. Sarah was too busy forcing a smile. “Hey Vic.”   
“Hey, Sarah, here’s the thing.” So his pursuits weren’t romantic this time. What a curveball. “You know the, uh, gift I gave you last weekend?”  
Drugs. Of course. They were probably the only thing in his life that could be higher priority than Sarah. “Yes, what about it?”  
“I need it. Now.”   
Sarah shifted her weight, leaning against a locker. “I don’t exactly carry it on me.”   
“Don’t bullshit me, Sarah.” He said, voice hinting at anger. “This is lunch period, the best opportunity you’d have to regift it. Where did you put it?”  
“I’m not bullshitting you.” She said simply. “It’s at my house. It was too much to bring to school. Too valuable.” Sarah was lying. Of course she was. The only way to distract Vic would be to tell him where the next biggest supply was, or to have sex with him. Since sex was frowned upon at most school campuses, she just kissed him, pressing her body flush against his. “Trust me.” She said with a sickeningly sweet smile. “I’ll have it for you tomorrow.” She moved to kiss him again, but was rudely interrupted by none other than everyone’s favorite Leadership teacher.  
She pulled away from Vic and crossed her arms. The tall man, probably late twenties or early thirties, was saying something about PDA and being appropriate at school, but she didn’t care. He probably just disliked Vic-- most teachers did. He had been held back three years thus far, and was considered a bad luck charm for any classroom. She didn’t care what Dierden thought about Vic, though. To make her point, Sarah turned on her heels and walked away in the middle of his sentence. Vic could take the brunt of his bullshit, she had bigger fish to fry.  
No sooner than Sarah turned a corner than she ran into everyone’s favorite quadruplet. Beth was practically sprinting down the hall, but slowed down as she passed Sarah, giving her enough time to say, “Don’t run in the halls, I don’t think Officer Dierden would approve of such scandalous behavior.” She didn’t wait to see Beth’s most likely gold reaction before walking off to go enjoy what was left of the lunch period in peace. 

Sarah was going to throw away her phone if it was going to keep ringing when she was preoccupied with much more important, much more exciting things. Like giving Vic a particularly wonderful handjob. That time, she elected to ignore it, letting the chorus of Phoenix by Fall Out Boy repeat until finally it went to voicemail and her mouth was on Vic’s cock and the cocaine supply was out of the question for at least another forty-eight hours.   
Afterwards, they were both lying on the bed in their underwear, Sarah curled up against Vic’s chest and Vic snoring almost obnoxiously as he slept. He was always asleep after sex, which made it easier to borrow money from his wallet and, on one specific occasion, steal his entire cocaine stash. You know. Little public school things. But she just rested only a few minutes before finally getting curious enough about the phone call she had received during her time getting Vic to shut his piehole. She checked that Vic was asleep, and then stood up, putting on her uniform shirt and not bothering to button it just so she could feel less naked.   
It was Alison. Again. Sarah had half the mind to ignore the call, but she remembered what she had told Vic the night before. Family before everything. Except handjobs, she added in her mind as she redialed Alison and waited as the phone rang. And rang. And rang. And Alison didn’t pick up. So she called Beth. Again, a chorus of ringing serenaded her, but she heard nothing. She called the home, and she thanked the God she had always denied that Cosima picked up.   
“Cosima.”  “Sarah, don’t come home.” She said softly and in an eerily calm tone.  
“Why not?” She asked. “What happened?”  
“Just don’t come home. Trust me. Enjoy Vic’s company.”  
“He’s asleep, but that’s besides the point. Tell me what happened.” Sarah insisted. “Or else I come home.”  
Cosima fell silent. “I promised Alison I wouldn’t tell you.”  
“And I promised mom I would keep my virginity until marriage, but not everyone’s word is good as gold. Spill the beans before I spill your brains.” Sarah didn’t mean it, but she wanted to know what would happen. Alison typically kept secrets from Cosima, not with her.  
“It’s Beth.” Cosima said. She began to breathe raggedly. “Beth... oh God, Sarah. Beth is gone, and we don’t know where she is.” Sarah dropped her phone before she could hear Cosima begin to sob.  
She violently shook Vic awake. “Round two already, babe?” He asked, a drowsy smile on his face that she probably would have thought was cute if her sister hadn’t just gone incognito.  
“No, Vic. I need your keys. Something’s happened.”   
He made a face. “You take my keys all the time. They’re in my coat pocket. What happened?”   
Sarah sighed. “Nothing.”  
“If it was nothing, then can you stay? I wanted to talk about you. And me. About us. About the future.”  
Sarah stood up, breathing heavily and fighting back the inevitable tears. “I don’t know what my future looks like, Vic. Not since my older sister just disappeared and my youngest sister has been left home alone to cope with the trauma. So please, stop being so absorbed in whatever the hell we are and let me find out who I even am.” She put her skirt on and marched indignantly out of his room, and in a few short moments found himself in his car, jamming the keys in the ignition and dialing Alison again.  
When the call went to voicemail, she spoke curtly to try and hide her cracking voice. “I know what happened. Call me back. Tell me where she is.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really enjoying writing this, Orphan Black is my favorite show. I hope you like reading this as much as I did writing this :~)


	3. In Which Everything Goes To Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarah leaves Vic to go and try to do some damage control. When she sees Beth, however, things take a turn for the worst.

Haha yo. I kind of forgot about this story, and i owe the followers of it an explanation. Earlier this year, my computer broke while I was trying to update it, and I lost not only all my progress on this story, but also my past two years of writing and two full length NaNoWriMo novels. I was understandably devastated. So I stuck with pen and paper for a while. This chapter is going to be a bit short, but I really wanted to focus on the emotions of what Sarah goes through during it. I'll explain what I mean after you finish reading it ;). For now, you can follow the story on tumblr under the tag "gratuitous hsau". Thank you. Huge trigger warning for non-con and suicide. This will apply for the next few chapters.  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At this point, there were two things on Sarah's mind: the drugs, and her sister. She and Vic had been together in the business of dealing drugs for nearly a year that that point, supplying anything that people were willing to dish out money for. Despite not being very proud of it, Sarah knew that she had to. It was one of the only ways that she and her siblings could stay afloat. Although the school was very generous, what with giving them used uniforms and reducing the price of lunch, the four girls living on their own still struggled to take care of themselves and the steep bills that came in each month.

So yes, Sarah had lied about the drugs. It wouldn't have been the first time, either. But usually it was just little white lies- not one so massive that nearly came to a value of 312 pounds. Sarah needed the money, badly. With Helena unable to make her meager salary at a local grocery store due to her sudden relocation and Cosima too bogged down trying to get a scholarship to college, it was a miracle they hadn't had the broken down house they lived in repossessed. A damn miracle. But Vic seemed to not be willing to forgive and forget this time.

Then there was Beth. There was always Beth. Just the thought of her name turned Sarah's insides to solid stone. Beth was the one who held everything together. She was the one who left school nearly 30 minutes early just to get to work and slave under barely minimum wage in order to make sure that food stayed on the table. And now she was gone. Sarah could barely walk. Everything moved around her, and it seemed that no matter how many steps she took, she couldn't move. Beth was gone. Beth was gone. Beth was gone. Cosima's shaking voice stuck in Sarah's head. Beth. Was. Gone.

Walking slowly and dizzily down the stairs to the tube, Sarah didn't know what to do. Of course, she could go back to Vic and have sex with him and drown out the anguish until the next morning, but this was something different. It wasn't Cosima skipping another meal because of homework. It wasn't Helena dissecting another bird on the kitchen counter (on the COUNTER!)- it was new, terrible, cripplingly intimidating uncharted territory.

And the tube was just as dark and as quiet as Sarah's thoughts. She checked the time- it was nearly ten. Where was everyone? It was a ghost town. But the train would be arriving any moment, so she stood on the platform, hands tucked into her jacket, trying to focus on not dying. Or crying. Or letting anyone know how shaken she was.

Then there were footsteps, the distinct sound of heels clicking on concrete. Click. Clack. Click. Clack. Sarah didn't look. She didn't bother. Then there was silence. As soon as it began, the clicking noise stopped. Then Sarah looked.

If not for her organs, her ribs would have caved in. There was Beth, hair tied into a tight ponytail, still in her work uniform, shoes on the ground beside her. They made eye contact, and it was as if Sarah was looking into a mirror. All the despair- the dread, the melancholy, the fear- in Sarah's eyes was only doubled in Beth's. The words that Sarah ached to speak got lost in her mouth and tripped over her tongue. The train station's silence was too loud.

Sarah took a step towards Beth, reaching out, only to watch as her sister turned on a dime and ran to the end of the platform, jumping off the end of the concrete and getting hit out of her morbidly graceful arch by the train.

When moments like these happen in movies, time slows down. The spilling glass shatters so slowly, you can see the spiderweb of cracks on the surface before they break. When the gun is fired, the cloud of gunpowder is seen in its full glory by the naked human eye.

When moments like these happen in real life, time happens too quickly. The time between Sarah's movement and Beth's jump couldn't have been more than four seconds. The sound of the train when it hit the emergency brakes made Sarah's entire soul shake and recoil.

And then there were people. They screamed, they gasped, they shouted, they dialed 999, but Sarah felt it was all too late. It was futile. She felt as if she was watching a movie, as if in that moment, she was not really there- as she walked out of the station, not daring to look at what lay below the train, she could hardly focus on where she was going, much less how to walk or breathe. This was hell. This was hell. This was hell.

The last thing she remembered was leaving the station.

It shouldn't have been a surprise when she woke up the next morning next to Vic, naked and sore. But instead of feeling relieved, she felt nothing. It was as if her insides had been taken out and all that was left in her skin was a frail skeleton. She looked at her phone. Friday. Nine AM. She had already missed first period.

**Author's Note:**

> I feel like I should do a brief introduction. I'm Stella, AKA Tumblr user dylanbruced, and this story is crossposted from my personal and Fanfiction.net. I've been thinking of this story for a while, and so I'm glad to finally put it on paper! Enjoy :~).


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